Sh*t To Help You Show Up June 20, 2025

Reasons for hope

It’s been awhile since we’ve done a resource list here at the newsletter, also known around these parts as Sh*t To Help You Show Up. So, that’s what we’re up to today. Because it’s good to be reminded that we can look at the world as it is right now and not just see crisis, violence, and horror. There is also humor, connection, inspiration, and delight.

Hope is a muscle, strengthened by action. Sometimes we strengthen our hope muscle by taking action ourselves. And sometimes we gather strength for our next action by witnessing the hopeful action of others. So, let’s witness a short list of hopeful actions together.

First! I took this picture at my local No Kings rally this past weekend. There’s little I don’t love about this picture and the wider context that created it. Families protesting together! Little kids out during Pride Weekend in their rainbow best!

But my favorite part, the part that gives me real hope, is knowing that somewhere there is a picture of me in a brown corduroy Snuggly strapped to my mom’s chest at my first protest in 1972. Seeing that picture when I was growing up imprinted deeply on me. It told me something essential that has carried me forward from that moment to this about who I am and who I came from.

Someday, this kid is going to see a similar picture. They’re going to know that they come from the sorts of people that stand up in the face of fascism. They’re going to know themselves as part of a lineage of hopeful, earnest, joyful fighters. And I know, I just know, that they’ll find their own way to carry the torch forward.

Photo by Eduard Labár on Unsplash

Second! The Klamath River runs along the Oregon-California border. Until 1918, it had existed for millennia as the lifeblood of six Native American tribes, providing both sustenance and spiritual grounding. The river was the spawning route for so many salmon, elders would tell stories of being able to walk across the river on their backs, as well as hosts of other fish and wildlife in its waters, surrounding forests, and grasslands.

In 1918, the first of six dams that constituted the Klamath River Hydroelectric Project was constructed, completely cutting off salmon from their spawning grounds, and the tribes from their traditional livelihoods and foodways. This was in direct contradiction to the treaty signed with the Klamath tribes in Oregon in 1864 protecting salmon fishing rights.

Over the next 44 years, five more dams were constructed, utterly transforming the river’s pathway and ecosystem. This was all in pursuit of not only power, but also irrigation, though the project never produced either resource at the levels promised.

For decades now a coalition of tribes have fought for the removal of the dams. Can you imagine how insurmountable of a barrier those dams must have seemed after standing for almost ninety years, just before their efforts finally started gaining traction?

Even so, the tribes were unrelenting in their hope and activism. And they won!

After a massive drought in 2001-2002, the political tide began to turn, but still there were decades more work to be done. Drawdowns of the water finally began in 2023, along with massive ecosystem restoration efforts. In 2024, dam deconstruction began. And right now, right now, there is a group of native youth who are kayaking the entire length of the river (300 miles!).

Their trip was profiled in the New York Times (gift link) this week, and friends, you have to read about it. After training for two years, they started at the sacred headwaters in Chiloquin, OR, being blessed by tribal elders. They are now paddling for a solid month, hosted along their route by tribal members and elders who will further bless them. And when they reach the Pacific Ocean in northern California, they will be celebrated as the “first to descend the full length of the Klamath, source to sea, since the dams went up and pinched life from the water.”

Two participants, 13 and 14 years old, emphasized, “We’re definitely going to go down in history. Our grandkids will know. Our great-grandkids will know.”

Y’all, I wept.

Change is never certain, and it is more often than not so much slower than we want. But it is happening, and these children are leading the way.

Third! There is much hand-wringing going on right now in legacy media about the “male loneliness epidemic”, as if most of us, regardless of gender, aren’t feeling alienated and isolated these days. But, sure, men are confronted by particular challenges due to patriarchy and capitalism. First among them being a stunning lack of training on how to be humble and self-reflective, thoughtful about systems of power, and, most especially, how to build deep friendships over the long haul.

In this interview, which I hope you’ll take the time to watch, Trevor Noah and John Stewart don’t talk about the so-called male loneliness epidemic at all. What they do is show us what it looks like when two men engage in thoughtful conversation fueled by genuine, heartfelt admiration and affection for each other. It’s funny, thought-provoking, and moving, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

I might just watch it again.

And finally, fourth! This one is purely for delight. Do I love Monty Python? Yes. Yes, I do.

Do I love kids who love Monty Python? That would also be a yes.

Do I love a kid who crafts a protest sign bigger than himself that brings together the current political moment and his love for Monty Python perfectly? OH, MY GOD, YES.

How hopeful does this kid make me feel? So, so hopeful.

And with that bit of ridiculous delight, I will leave you. But before you go, tell me: what hopeful action have you witnessed this week?